Blogs

How a like-minded citizens' group comes together to serve the needy in the summer I was waiting at a bus stop on Poonamalle High Road in the first week of May. The temperature reading on my mobile read 35 degrees celsius. The scorching heat had tired out everyone at the bus stop. Three young men came in a Bolero, that halted near the bus stop. One was carrying a 1 litre pack of butter milk  (‘more’ in Tamil) , while the other had smaller packs of 200 ml. The third one had coloured cards that were the size of postcards.…

Having had my voter id "vanish" (from Richmond Town,where I had voted earlier), I had applied afresh...online, and twice gave my photograph and Aadhar details to people who were vetted by our residents' association and were supposed to be genuine information collectors. Finally, this morning, I went to the BBMP office where I was supposed to check on the arrival of the Voter Id card. The office that I had visited before (J P Nagar 2nd Phase) was wide open...and deserted on the first floor, with all the steel cupboards open with several files inside. and locked on the ground…

I found this impressive building in Panduranga Nagar, just off Bannerghatta Road. What struck me about the big claims was that no course of study was being talked about....all that this tell students is that it will help them pass the *entrance* exams to various courses. We have degraded our educational system to the point where passing an entrance examination is a great feat, to be aspired to. If it is accomplished,goes the subtext, the rest of the course is just a breeze. Nowhere is there anything about learning anything these days; it's all about marks, and toppers, and rankings.…

Sometimes, the juxtaposition of two things strikes the eye, as it did when I saw this gentleman, along with a book that a young lady had left open on another table. The caption occurred to me at once. As he got up, the gentleman called the attention of yet another man to the glasses he'd left behind when moving to another table. Such casual helpfulness, somehow, made me feel very happy! So much to see and observe even on a short visit to a Darshini (this one was Coffee Thindi in Jayangar 4th T Block)

The Last White Hunter, Reminiscences of a Colonial Shikari By Donald Anderson, as told to Joshua Mathew 265 pp. Rs.650 Indus Source Books PO Box 6194 Malabar Hill PO Mumbai 400 006 INDIA Email: info@indussource.com www.indussource.com Readers who are interested in the wildlife history of India, and in particular, of the Melagiri and Bannerghatta forests near Bangalore, will be familiar with the name of Kenneth Anderson, a "shikari" (hunter) of the old school. The series of books that he wrote, on his various wildlife encounters, were very popular reading at one time. His son, Donald Anderson, was brought up in…

Once in a while, it's a refreshing change to look forward to a children's play, and on the 31st of March, '18, I took my grandchildren to watch "Fish Tree Moon", a play by Ranga Shankara as part of its "Aha!" initiative for children. The beautiful moon from the play. The performances (3 in all) had been well timed for the start of the school summer vacations, and the play drew an almost full house, with many children eager to watch, and their families eager to immerse them in theatre. The play deals with a varied set of characters.... an…

We recently had a ban on shooting of movies/videos for commercial purposes, whether for weddings or TV serials, take effect in Lalbagh. Now, I am finding such shoots happening in all the reserve forests that skirt our city. Today I clicked this shooting of a scene in Doresanipalya Forest Research Station: I am unable to figure out whether such shoots should be proscribed or allowed. I see such outdoor shoots happening in public parks everywhere in the world. So what are the reasons for the ban, and if the reasons are valid at Lalbagh, surely they should not be allowed…

I think it's a human trait to introduce an aesthetic appeal into the most mundane tasks imaginable. Surely, one would not think twice about the peanuts one purchases from the pushcart vendors, whose paper cones are getting so slender that they may accommodate only a few groundnuts. But the very selection of those recycled papers for the cones, and their arrangement, is so attractive visually...a fine example of art in commerce!

We are always worried that our children are completely dependent on powered devices for their pastimes, but the photo below proves that many children know how to enjoy themselves where there is no electricity! The three boys are playing with their tops..an untiring source of entertainment for boys, and some girls, too! Here's a video of a smiling young man, playing with his top, that I took five years ago: https://youtu.be/NzTBke6JZvY As the summer vacations begin for schools across our cities, we can, if we look, find children playing board games and ball games as well as games on gadgets.…

I've been going to R V (Rashtriya Vidyalaya) College of Physiotherapy for, well, physiotherapy, and as I came out, this was what the avenue leading to the Jain temple and the Jayanagar bus terminus looked like: What a lovely sight for someone who walks along roads increasingly bereft of greenery, shade or walking space! This seemed to take me to the past when most Bangalore roads were avenues. True that these trees (rain trees) originally came from South America...but when they've been around for 300 years, and have caused no environmental upheaval, they are surely good citizens of our city!